A 2021 report, commissioned by the NCAA, revealed what many female athletes and coaches had been arguing for years: women's sports can be a moneymaker and a worthwhile investment, if given an opportunity. Shortly after social media exploded in reaction to blatant disparities between the setup for the 2021 NCAA men's and women’s basketball tournaments, a national conversation started about investment in women’s sports and their market value.

They can ensure they're doing their part to make a difference for the next generation of girls, who we all know can have a more equitable world.' Worthwhile investment 'In my conversations with former athletes, their motivation is centered around the belief that the time is now. 'There's no better indicator of the fact that this is really a new day for women's sports than to see former pros investing their own hard-earned capital back into the game,' NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman told USA TODAY Sports.

The founding investors of Angel City FC, the NWSL's Los Angeles club, is a who's-who of female athletic talent, with 18 former or current female athletes including Olympians Julie Foudy, Shawn Johnson East, Candace Parker, Lindsey Vonn and Serena Williams.Īfter years of imploring companies and businesses to bet on women's sports, some of the greatest to ever compete are taking their own advice. Soon-to-be retired Sue Bird, arguably the best point guard in the history of women’s basketball, announced last week that she had joined the investor group of NWSL's NJ/NY Gotham FC (Bird is a New York native). Former WNBA All-Star Swin Cash, now vice president of basketball operations and team development for the NBA's New Orleans Pelicans, chipped in last season when the WNBA raised $75 million in capital.

There’s Montgomery in Atlanta and Naomi Osaka in North Carolina (Osaka, a tennis player, is part-owner of the North Carolina Courage, an NWSL team). That's starting to shift across the country as current and former female athletes invest in the next generation of women's sports, buying into teams and leagues, playing as crucial a role off the field or court as they did on it.

For decades, ownership in professional sports teams usually went to someone who checked three boxes: rich, white, male.

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